C is a definite two year old.  And a stubborn one at that.  When she doesn’t want to do something, she, well, won’t do it.  We found that two things work to cajole her to our way of thinking.

Threaten and Follow Through.
Many a night goes by where C does not want to clean up her toys and start to get ready for bed.  We tried time outs but she rather enjoyed them a little too much.  She liked them so much she ASKED to be put in time out rather than clean up.  J then had a thought, she loves LOVES to read or rather, be read to, before bedtime.  So we started to give her a warning that if she chose not to clean up, then there will be no bedtime stories.  After the first couple times where she didn’t clean up and therefore she didn’t get her stories, a warning is pretty much all that is given for the deed to be done.

Distraction.
Sometimes, no, really a lot of times, C becomes obsessed over something.  For example, the other day her empty fruit snack wrapper blew out of the car when I went to take her out.  Oh my goodness, you would have thought the world was ending!  Let me remind you again, the wrapper was empty.  She had already eaten the snack.  Didn’t matter.  She talked about this empty wrapper for a good hour and then had to tell her daddy about it at dinner and then told me about it again today when I gave her a new fruit snack.  The only way I got her off the subject of the darn wrapper was through distraction.  I showed her something else, like a book or put on her Barney or Dora dvd or just talked to her about other things we saw on that same day.  9 times out of 10 this works and helps my sanity tremendously.  I truly believe that if I let her talk about that wrapper she would.  All.  Day.  Long.  My sanity is worth more than that.

Two year olds are tough.  But I know they are nothing compared to three year olds.  She is so different from her sister and yet, I take comfort in the fact that I have been down this road before.  This too shall pass.